about the symposium

In late July of 2010, the city of Portland, Oregon (USA), became a canvas for drawing enthusiasts from around the world as Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Urban Sketchers (USK) hosted the 1st International Urban Sketching Symposium. The three-day event attracted participants and presenters from diverse corners of the world. In addition to the U.S., other countries represented were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Mauritania, Italy, Japan, Singapore, the Dominican Republic and Spain. The program consisted of lectures, panels, exhibits and field sketching sessions led by a diverse team of international presenters with backgrounds in art education, architecture, illustration and journalism. This blog documents the experience since the Symposium was announced in March. A selection of photographs from the event can be found in this flickr collection. Sketches produced by participants during the event can also be seeing on the Symposium flickr group.

Other Portland resources

World Wide SketchCrawl Day

We'll be observing the 28th World Wide SketchCrawl on July 31st, the third day of the Symposium, in addition to the scheduled program. The global sketching marathons were started by San Francisco artist Enrico Casarosa in 2004. It's a day when people across the world get out to draw wherever they are. Visit the SketchCrawl Forum to arrange sketching meetups in Portland and elsewhere.